2. Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972), dir. Alan Gibson

[strange_complex]

Aw, sad times. With this film, I reach the end of my joyful rewatching of Hammer's Dracula series - or at least, the ones with Christopher Lee in them, anyway. I've saved it till last partly because I watched it only 18 months ago, but also because I unironically and enthusiastically love it. I am thus ending the series on a high, and I am very

Comments

[ms_siobhan]

Maybe part of the critics response to it was that it was too cheesy a portrayal of 70's ness - in that things go out of fashion so quickly, what strikes us as wonderful datedness now might have been excruiating then - in the way that whenever goths are portrayed in mainstream culture it is almost always wrong and clunky.

I hadn't twigged it was the first time since the 1958 film that Lee and Cushing were in together either but you can see the effect grief has had on Mr Cushing, IIRC the script had to be rewritten to make him a grandfather as opposed to a father.

[strange_complex]

Yes, it did indeed. There is also a framed photograph on the desk in his study, which in the film I guess we're meant to take as the character's deceased wife, but is actually of Peter Cushing's real wife. That seems a very nice way of paying tribute to his grief for her within the film.

[ms_siobhan]

They gave him the silver frame with the picture inside it afterwards.

[strange_complex]

Oh, did they? That is really nice.

[angeoverhere]

This reminds me - have you read Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series? Sort of a fantasy/historical mashup based on 'what if' Dracula hadn't been killed at the end of Stoker's novel. They're great fun and possibly right up your street - I've also just discovered that the latest one is called Johnny Alucard..

[strange_complex]

I'm aware of them, and have read a few summaries / reviews of them online, but haven't read the books themselves. I really should, though, you're right - I certainly always enjoy the things Kim Newman has to say about Dracula (whether on page or screen) in TV documentaries etc.